Smoking Lingerie Leads to Lawsuit

Victoria's Secret parent company Limited Brands is suing its shippers over burned merchandise the company alleges was damaged in transit.

Image: Victoria's Secret

This isn’t the hot Victoria’s Secret aims for.

Limited Brands Inc., owner of the lingerie chain, is suing several shipping businesses and the owners of Rayovac batteries, seeking $578,549 plus interest and damages in compensation for goods damaged in a fire last year.

The Columbus retailer filed suit October 9 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, in Franklin Couty, Ohio, against Lombard, Illinois-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (America) Inc., an international freight carrier; American President Lines Ltd., an Oakland, California-based shipper; Hanseatic Lloyd Schiffahrt GmbH & Co. KG, a German shipping business; and Madison, Wisconsin-based consumer-products provider Spectrum Brands Inc.

Spectrum’s Rayovac business is at the heart of the allegations. Limited Brands subsidiaries contracted with the carriers to take three orders of apparel from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Seattle last September, when a fire broke out on the boat en route. The suit claims the fire started in a container loaded with a shipment of batteries made by Rayovac.

The fire and the efforts to put it out damaged Limited Brands’ apparel. The company claims the carriers failed to protect cargo from the potential for damage caused by other products on the ship, and it alleged Rayovac had a duty to warn about the dangers of its cargo and prepare it properly for shipping.

“Defendants could have anticipated that such injury and property damage would occur,” the suit said.

Limited Brands and Mitsui O.S.K. executives declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spectrum Brands did not respond to queries. John Kimball, an attorney representing American President Lines, said the suit is without merit and the shipper denies liability.

Limited Brands isn’t the only company fired up over the accident. Spectrum filed a response in the Limited Brands suit denying liability for the damage because it wasn’t the shipper, maker, owner, or designer of the batteries at the time of the incident. The company said it lost 44,844 cartons of batteries and is putting the blame on American President Lines and Hanseatic. In a cross-claim in the Limited lawsuit, it is seeking $719,216 in damages.

Two other lawsuits stemming from the same incident have been filed. One, filed in October 2008 in U.S. District Court in New York, with several plaintiffs, including Meijer Distribution Inc., is seeking $428,328 in damages for an assortment of products damaged on the ship. The other, filed in April by International Marine Underwriters, also in federal court in New York, seeks $285,499 for damaged clothing, pool cues, rubber-band balls, kitchenware, footwear, and watches.